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My Body Is Mine: I Support Amina

Amina is a 19 year old Tunisian activist who posted a topless photo of herself saying, “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour” and “fuck your morals”.

For this “crime,” she has been kidnapped by her family with the help of the police, and has been threatened with death. Islamist cleric Adel Almi, president of Al-Jamia Al-Li-Wassatia Tawia Wal-Islah, has called for Amina’s flogging and stoning to death, saying Amina’s actions will bring misfortune by causing “epidemics and disasters” and “could be contagious and give ideas to other women..”

You’re damn well right her actions could give ideas to other women.

Today, April 4, is the International Day to Defend Amina. FEMEN and Maryam Namazie are organizing a day of solidarity with Amina: Around the world, anti-theocratic protesters are speaking and taking action in support of Amina — including posting topless photos with feminist and anti-theocratic messages. Or, as Maryam put it, “On 4 April, we will breast them!” Islamist theocrats are terrified and hateful of women’s bodies — so we will make our bodies impossible to ignore. Again, to quote Maryam, “Islamism’s obsession with women’s bodies and its insistence that women be veiled, bound, and gagged means that nudity breaks taboos and is an important form of resistance.”

Here is my contribution. Not as much as I would have liked to have done, but it’s what I can do given how slammed I am right now. Photos below the fold, for anyone who doesn’t want to see photos of my breasts, or for anyone who’s at work and will get in trouble for having naked breasts on their computer.

This is me, in jeans, taking the photo with my phone in a hotel mirror, with the words “MINE” and “I SUPPORT AMINA” written on my breasts in lipstick.

And here is the original photo that started this.

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That’s awesome. I would have broken my blogging silence for this had I been aware of this day (I’m dealing with some depression like you- my daughter tried to commit suicide- have no idea why I’m telling you this except I don’t tell much of anyone and I feel the need to get it out occasionally like the occasional tear)
So glad you did this!

I don’t smoke. I don’t do any drugs. That’s actually irrelavant as is any moral stance regarding prostitution. I’m concerned about harm done to actual women. Including women I know who are sex workers. These are real women’s lives on the fucking line. Do you not understand that? I’m worried about harm reduction. Yes feminists screaming Tw: “go rape yourselves.” Do you not understand how this contributes to devaluing the lives of an already marginalized group, and says that it is ok to rape them because they are agents of the patriarchy?

Would you like me to also give an example of Femen’s racism against arab people?

Femen have also made problematic statements about Arabs,such as: “As a society we haven’t been able to eradicate our Arab mentality towards women.”